Tea farm workers fear job losses after frost destroys crop
Posted by Labels: Africa, Crop Loss, Job Security, Kenya, Tea, Winter
Kenya - Fear of job losses has gripped tea farm workers in Nandi County after frost destroyed hundreds of acres of the cash crop in the area. Multi-national tea firms and tea farmers in the tea zone are counting losses after their plantations were affected by frost following a stint of unusually low temperatures. Tea experts have warned that the situation could result in job cuts and threaten food security in the county since other crops like maize have also been affected.
However, by Sunday some of the multi-national tea firms that have suffered assured their workers that no one would be laid off due to the natural catastrophe.
According to the general manager of Nandi Tea Company, Mr Abdi Noor, the frost attacked 300 acres out of more than 1,000 acres of tea estate. He said that the company had so far made losses amounting to Sh20 million.
He told the Daily Nation that already 30 per cent of tea in Nandi is under attack from frost but assured employees that they would be assigned duties of clearing and plucking down destroyed tea plants.
The affected trees would take about two months to fully recover.
Mr Joseph Lagat, a tea expert and former director of EPK Tea Company, recalled that when frost first occurred in the area in 2005, most companies made loses amounting to millions of shillings forcing some of the them to venture into business of growing trees for environmental protection.
He added that crops like potatoes, tomatoes, maize, fruits, beans and vegetables of all kind and perish whenever frost comes calling.
Williamson Tea Company, The Eastern Produce Tea Company of Kenya, Tindiret Tea, Kapchorwa Tea Company and Kaimosi Tea Company are some of the multinational tea firms which own thousands of hectares of tea plantations in Nandi County.
Daily Nation
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